Category Archives: TV

Cartoon by Berke Breathed (Bloom County Babylon: Five Years of Basic Naughtiness)

The cartoon kinda sums up my confused state of mind. When I was a wee lad, I grew up on a diet of television series like “Combat”, movies like Chuck Norris’ “Missing in Action” and Commando War Comics. All of which tended to give a glorified and sanitized portrayal of war, in that, the bad guys are usually clearly viciously bad and deserve to be killed by the virtuous good guy heroes who almost always just get flesh wounds.

And so, I grew up playing soldier and even cowboys and Indians. Only later did I begin to understand that war is almost never clear cut black and white and it’s not just the bad guys that get killed. I learned about “collateral damage”, “civilian casualties”, “killing fields” and “genocide”. I began to see that war wasn’t cool.

Today, I consider myself to be firmly in the peace-loving, pacifist, flower-power camp. Or at least, that’s who I grew up to be. And yet, I confess that I was excited to have the opportunity, with my brother, to visit the Korean War Memorial and their open air collection of war machines. Please forgive this relapsing war-junkie as I guiltily present some photos from that visit.

Enter Korean War Memorial (Photo by LGS)The front of the Monument showing the brave and valiant fighters (Photo by LGS)The rear of the Monument showing perhaps the suffering of the people (Photo by LGS)F86L Sabre (Photo by LGS’ brother)F-51D Mustang (Photo by LGS)The opposing MIG 19 (Photo by LGS)LGS valiantly defending against air attack (Photo by LGS’ brother)The Hardware of War (Photo by LGS)American Tanks (Photo by LGS)Cool-looking attack boat (Photo by LGS)This Patrol Boat actually took place in the Second Battle of Yeonpyeong and still carries the scars of the battle to repel a North Korean naval incursion in 2002 in which 6 South Koreans lost their lives. The red holes are battle damage. (Photo by LGS)

Things seem a bit depressing at the moment. Wars, atrocities, air crashes, etc. All bummers. Not even the promised distraction of sporting competition where man challenge man to greater heights of achievement bring much relief. The upcoming Euro football championships have the threat of terrorist attacks hanging over them and the Olympics are under a cloud of mosquitos bearing the risk of Zika.

So I have decided to treat you loyal friends to an escape. An escape into the crazy imagination of a nut-addled squirrel mind. Let’s leave the world and all its worries behind behind and blast off in our own Eagle Transporter into the world of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s Space 1999.

Regular readers (all two of you and the stalker), will know that my birthday wish in 2014 was to have my own Eagle Transporter model kit. Unfortunately, it is incredibly hard to get as the model was based on a British TV series that ran between 1975-1977. They had long stopped producing the models.

But so desperate was I to go on a flight of fancy that I did not give up the search. Finally, after about a year on the quest, I finally found one in Melbourne, Australia.

And here it is……….. I am a bit rusty so my model building skill is lamentable. Nevertheless, come fly with me.

What should my next project be? Should it be the Star Wars Death Star or Millennium Falcon? How about Star Trek’s Enterprise or Klingon Bird of Prey? I am thinking maybe a World War II bomber, or perhaps an aircraft carrier, or maybe a tall ship. What do you think?

I love comedy and one of the comedy greats that gave me belly aching laughter for so many years was Ronnie Corbett. He passed on this week at the age of 85. This British comedienne was one half of the successful comedy act “The Two Ronnies” together with Ronnie Barker. I used to laugh at their routines till I cried.

My thanks to you Ronnie Corbett for being a source of so much laughter and joy. I have posted on the Two Ronnies before but here once again are two of my favourite sketches from their partnership.

Mulder and Scully are back! The iconic X Files television series has been resurrected after a hiatus of more than 13 years.

Mulder and Scully are back! Much older……… much, much older! (Hmmm did I also lose my youthful looks in those 13 years?). But what’s important is that “chemistry”, that “spark”, the “sizzle” between them is still alive and kicking.

Mulder and Scully are back! And so inspired, the Lone Grey Squirrel has decided to return to the blogosphere after an absence of 13 months (not 13 years!).

The X Files return has been billed as a “Media Event”. Likewise watch out for the return of the Realm of the Lone Grey Squirrel – 2016’s Blogosphere Event! It all happens here …..starting on February 1st.

This is the Year of the Horse! Now I am a Tiger (yes – that’s right – a tiger squirrel! I have a picture of just such a creature HERE on this blog). My year was in 2010 and I think we can say that us Tigers gave you a good year. You are welcome.

My wife is actually a Snake. Her kind gave us last year. It wasn’t a particularly bad sort of year but let’s face it …..it wasn’t a Tiger year.

Now for those who hold stock in traditional Chinese astrology, they say that a Tiger – Snake romantic pairing is not an auspicious one and the relationship will not work well. Perhaps for that reason, when we were first dating, my wife told me that she was actually a Rabbit. Sometimes when someone asks about her Chinese astrological sign, she will still say that she is a Rabbit. To set the record straight, I tell that person that “this Rabbit speaks with forked tongue!”

So this is the Year of the Horse! Yes, well, I don’t know much about horses but I will gladly share my general ignorance with all of you dear readers.

First, my sister is a Horse. Enough said. I dare not say more. She can kick like a ……

Second, the word for horse in Chinese is “Ma” and is often one of the first words that they teach how to write when you are trying to learn Chinese. This is probably because it clearly shows the pictographic nature of many Chinese characters. The earliest character for “Ma” really resembled a picture representation for a horse and it evolved into the present day character. (see below)

The evolution of the Chinese character for the word horse. Source: Tan Huay Peng, What’s in a Chinese Character.

Third, I actually had the privilege of seeing the Przewalski’s horse roaming wild in Mongolia (see post). The Pzewalski’s Horse is considered the only remaining truly wild horse in the world. Woohoo! Perhaps an ancestor of the horses I saw was the inspiration or model for that very first Chinese character for “Ma”.

Rubbing It’s Behind on the Rough Rock (photo by LGS)

Fourth, when I was a wee lad, the only horse I knew was the “Hoss” on TV. For me , he was the “Hoss”.

“Hoss” Cartwright (the one in front) of TV’s Bonanza fame.

Fifth and final point; lovely button mushrooms (yum yum) are grown on horse dung (not so yum yum) and that’s no bullshit!

And that brings to and end all that I know about horses. Must go now……head feels ….kinda…….empty…..

I don’t watch TV obsessively but there have been a few television series that have grabbed my imagination. For example, regular readers will know that I am a fan of series like Friends, X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly. Friends was a very popular sitcom with a large mainstream fan base. However, X-Files, Buffy and Firefly all had engendered a very cult like following amongst their fan base. I think that this is because that they represented a very different and very fresh as well as powerful approach to story telling. In all three, there was both episodic stories as well as larger story arcs spanning a season and even the whole series. Their characters and heroes can be seen to develop substantially throughout the series and were not spared suffering or even loss; they were made to go through much suffering as consequences of the stands they make.

It is no coincidence that the mind behind two of them, Buffy and Firefly, was Joss Whedon who I feel is one of the best storytellers around today. When Buffy the series came to an end after season 7, like many Whedon fans, I suffered withdrawal symptoms and desperately kept an eye out for new Joss Whedon projects. But for awhile, there were none that could fill the void left by the end of Buffy. Ironically, it was Whedon himself who directed me in the right direction when he himself sang praises of one new series, Veronica Mars by Rob Thomas. I had a look and I was smitten with this petite powerhouse of a teenager struggling with growing up and making ends meet by doing some private investigation work..

However, like many Marshmallows, as the rabid fans of the series are called, I was crestfallen to learn that the series was not being extended beyond the 3rd season. But a miracle has now happened.

Rob Thomas and series star, Kristin Bell, approached the executives and decision makers of Warner Brothers and managed to get their agreement to make a Veronica Mars movie if they could prove that there was enough interest amongst the series fans. The challenge was to raise at least USD 2 million within 30 days through a Kickstarter web campaign for donations. Well, the fans met the target in less than 10 hours into the internet campaign which is a new record for Kickstarter. Wow! Impressive!

“Well, in just a few days time, it will be Easter. And really early, before the sun rises and all the good children are awake, the Easter Bunny will be hopping across lawns and gardens all over the world, hiding colorful eggs for all the good children to find”.

Say WHAT?!?! Rabbits can’t even lay eggs – so just where is he getting them eggs and does he have elves like Santa does, to help paint all those eggs or is it outsourced to some sweat factory employing child labor? Rabbits are also known to be health fanatics, eating only carrots and salad. No way a rabbit would be promoting chocolate eggs. So why is there a bunny/rabbit/hare intruding on Christianity’s most meaningful celebration? It makes no sense at all.

Why is an overweight man in red the poster boy for Christmas and why is a egg-centric bunny the mascot for Easter? Christmas remembers Jesus’ birth and Easter – his death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave. Why, then, is the world promoting these mythical characters instead of showing reverence for the real and historical Jesus Christ for which these festivals are actually meant to remember?

It is most unacceptable. The world talks about respecting each other including our different cultures and religions. It would not think of doing this kind of thing with other religions, so why does the world think its okay to do it to Christians? I mean, the Muslims would be offended if the media and businesses start promoting the “Camel of Eid-ul-Fitri” on their holy month. No one would dream of using the “Holy Cow of Deepavali” to push sales to Hindus. Even pacifist Buddhists may be riled up if some PR guy came up with something like the “Grand Pokemon of Vesak Day”. I do not mean any disrespect to any of those religions. I am just trying to illustrate how silly it would be and possibly offensive. No such festival creature exists for any of the world’s religious festivals (except maybe the Holiday Armadillo of Hannukah from a certain episode of “Friends”). In the same way, I will thank you for leaving the Bunny out from Easter.

Sorry, there really is no "Holiday Armadillo of Hannukah".

The Easter weekend starts with Good Friday and ends with Easter Sunday and commemorates Jesus death on the cross on Friday and his resurrection from the dead on Sunday. It is the most important event in the Christian faith. The birth of Christ is not even discussed in two of the four Gospels but the events relating to his death and resurrection occupies 9 of 21 chapters in John’s Gospel. Where Christmas was the start of Jesus’ work of redeeming mankind from the burden and penalty of their sin, Easter was the completion of that work.

John 3: 16-17:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ”

So silly rabbit, Easter is not for you but it is for mankind loss and weary, separated from God – now given new hope through the love of God and Jesus’ sacrifice in our stead. Have a blessed Easter.

Viewing the World Through the Observation of Squirrels

About Me

Lone Grey Squirrel
I am a scientist who enjoy the arts; a socialist who wishes to be rich; a food enthusiast who wishes to be skinny and a human who loves squirrels. Just a nutter trying to make sense of the world.